Robert Long

Robert J. Long

I aim to inspire curiosity in the intricacies of the natural world, and by extension, promote nature conservation. Fueled by biology and protoscience, my work amplifies intimate and obscure forms of life in order to give underrepresented organisms a louder voice and to visualize their self-worlds or Umwelten. Much of my personal work hones in on symbiosis, or the living together of unlike organisms. Deep within these animals' relationships, I solidify interdependency– the way in which their lives cross into another.

I stay inspired by visiting natural history museums and aquaria and by tending to my nano reef aquarium. A natural curiosity pushes me along, often to places I didn’t expect to be. I grew up catching bugs and collecting fossilized sharks' teeth in Maryland, where my friends later introduced me to crabbing on the Chesapeake Bay. I currently create and teach visual art in Tucson, Arizona.

Long also holds a BFA and MFA in Studio Art from University of Arizona. Tucson, Arizona. He has been honored with the Critic's Choice Winner for Best Imagery, EDDY Awards, Edible Communities, 2015, an Honorable Mention, Art of Our Century Juried Exhibition, Utah, 2014, and was a finalist for the Adobe Design Achievement Awards, 2013.

Robert Long has been published in "Ark of Taste" for Edible Santa Fe Magazine, Edible Baja Arizona Magazine, COVER, May/June 2015, The Desert Sea at Biosphere 2: A Vision Portfolio. Tucson: University of Arizona College of Science, 2015, and “Honey, Don’t Forget the Pollinators: the Pivotal Role of Baja Arizona Foodscapes in Bee and Butterfly Recovery,” an article by Gary Nabahn in Edible Baja Arizona Magazine, Sept/Oct 2014.

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“Long's innate technical abilities are accompanied by an inquisitive vision… There is an agency in Long's investigation of the relationships between animals, and animals' perceptions of their environments, an agency that emerges from the ease with which we can recognize a parallel between the animals and ourselves... Robert Long has found harmony in the latent fragments of life's connectedness, and it is my hope he will continue to compose ever more finely crafted songs from what we persist in not knowing how to sing.”

Robert Long

Robert J. Long

I aim to inspire curiosity in the intricacies of the natural world, and by extension, promote nature conservation. Fueled by biology and protoscience, my work amplifies intimate and obscure forms of life in order to give underrepresented organisms a louder voice and to visualize their self-worlds or Umwelten. Much of my personal work hones in on symbiosis, or the living together of unlike organisms. Deep within these animals' relationships, I solidify interdependency– the way in which their lives cross into another.

I stay inspired by visiting natural history museums and aquaria and by tending to my nano reef aquarium. A natural curiosity pushes me along, often to places I didn’t expect to be. I grew up catching bugs and collecting fossilized sharks' teeth in Maryland, where my friends later introduced me to crabbing on the Chesapeake Bay. I currently create and teach visual art in Tucson, Arizona.

Long also holds a BFA and MFA in Studio Art from University of Arizona. Tucson, Arizona. He has been honored with the Critic's Choice Winner for Best Imagery, EDDY Awards, Edible Communities, 2015, an Honorable Mention, Art of Our Century Juried Exhibition, Utah, 2014, and was a finalist for the Adobe Design Achievement Awards, 2013.

Robert Long has been published in "Ark of Taste" for Edible Santa Fe Magazine, Edible Baja Arizona Magazine, COVER, May/June 2015, The Desert Sea at Biosphere 2: A Vision Portfolio. Tucson: University of Arizona College of Science, 2015, and “Honey, Don’t Forget the Pollinators: the Pivotal Role of Baja Arizona Foodscapes in Bee and Butterfly Recovery,” an article by Gary Nabahn in Edible Baja Arizona Magazine, Sept/Oct 2014.

•••

“Long's innate technical abilities are accompanied by an inquisitive vision… There is an agency in Long's investigation of the relationships between animals, and animals' perceptions of their environments, an agency that emerges from the ease with which we can recognize a parallel between the animals and ourselves... Robert Long has found harmony in the latent fragments of life's connectedness, and it is my hope he will continue to compose ever more finely crafted songs from what we persist in not knowing how to sing.”